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Cursing is good for you, new study says. Really

Holy #%$@!!! Damn, that feels better already. And that's just what British scientists would expect.

(MARGARET M. STEWART / SHUTTERSTOCK)

By Jim WilkesSTAFF REPORTER

Mon., July 13, 2009

Holy #%$@!!!

Damn, that feels better already.

And that's just what British scientists would expect, saying they've learned cussing may be good for you.

Their study, "Swearing as a Response to Pain," is published in August's NeuroReport, a journal "for rapid communication of neuroscience research." The report by researchers at England's Keele University found volunteers withstood pain longer when they resorted to distasteful invective.

So, let loose when the pain comes.

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It's something English chef Gordon Ramsay has put to use with wild abandon on his TV shows, but his pain is more often of the temporal kind, when kitchen wannabes burn the brûlée or char the Arctic char.

Real pain calls for tougher talk.

Dr. Richard Stephens, who led the research, said he got the idea for the study after watching his wife give birth to their daughter, spilling a slew of swear words as she pushed and pushed and pushed.

While stubbing your toe can invoke an unfettered stream of profane platitudes, it may also be an inherited guttural response from our hairy-backed ancestors when faced with fearsome predators. Stephens said that may explain why swearing is still in vogue around the world.

"We think it could be part of the flight or fight response," he explained. "In the volunteers who swore, we also found they had an elevated heart rate, so it could be increasing their aggression levels. Increased aggression has been shown to reduce people's sensitivity to pain, so it could be swearing is helping this process."

Researchers tested how 64 students tolerated pain by having them plunge a hand into ice water while repeating swear words. They were then asked to do it again while saying non-offensive words to describe a table.

They found that foul-mouthed volunteers could keep their hands submerged for about 40 seconds longer and felt the pain less.

It's unclear how that colours the f-bomb dropped by Transport Minister John Baird last month when Toronto asked for federal funding for new streetcars.

Baird dismissed Toronto's request with an overheard "f--- off" that ultimately proved to be Ottawa's final decision in the matter.

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